Loan brokerage platform Jeff App closed a $1m round led by the Estonian Business Angels Network syndicate.
Joining the round were Startup Wise Guys, Taavi Tamkivi as well as several angels from the Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt.
With the aim to provide its data-enabled loan brokerage platform for unbanked customers in Asia despite based in Latvia, the firm will use the funds to fuel growth in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines before expanding into further countries in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, it aims to launch new products that range from a free credit score and insurance offers to digital discount coupons and mobile wallet cashback.
More than a billion people don’t have access to a bank account and struggle to get financial services in Asia due to the limited amount of available financial data. Jeff App aims to tackle this issue by aggregating alternative data from those seeking financial services. This it does by integrating with a growing number of data sources using anonymised smartphone metadata and analysing behavioural patterns.
While some lending companies have developed projects for alternative data scoring, the process is often time-consuming, complicated and expensive. Jeff on the other hand leverages the customers’ digital footprint to produce a unified credit score, therefore making the process smoother and inexpensive for both lenders and borrowers.
Commenting on the firm’s plans, Jeff co-founder and CEO Toms Niparts said, “Jeff helps our users to start building credit history based on their digital footprint, something that is otherwise difficult in a market where 70% of transactions are still done in cash. Ultimately, we want to develop Jeff into a financial super app offering a range of products besides loans, such as insurance, mass-adopted digital credit score, and even go beyond finance by adding a range of utility functions.
“One thing we learnt about emerging Asian markets is that there is an incredible opportunity on the B2B side, as the API infrastructure is not as developed as we had anticipated. We are actively developing our lender toolkit, which includes a bank portal and a lender API. The idea is to offer solutions that improve the borrower-lender transaction while also requiring little to no integration effort for banks,” added Niparts.
In 2020, the startup landed a pre-seed funding round at around €150K backed by a number of European business angels. Jeff currently claims more than 300,000 users in Vietnam.
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![Temenos (SIX: TEMN) today announced that National Bank of Iraq (NBI), part of the Capital Bank Group, has successfully gone live with Temenos core banking and payments. NBI, which has 27 branches across Iraq, offers a comprehensive range of services to individuals and businesses in the country. Since 2005, NBI has been majority owned by Capital Bank, one of the top financial institutions operating in the Jordanian and regional markets, with assets of approximately JOD 7.6 billion[1]. With this implementation, NBI moved from its legacy systems onto the same core banking platform as other entities in the Capital Bank Group. This will enable NBI to operate more efficiently and integrate seamlessly with other systems to develop new products faster and deliver an improved customer experience. Capital Bank Group is a long-standing Temenos customer with other entities in the Group including Capital Bank of Jordan, Bank Audi, Société Générale Bank Jordan and NBI Saudi Arabia, already on the Temenos platform. NBI also becomes the first part of the group to adopt Temenos Payments, which enabled the bank to process more than 100,000 transactions of incoming and outgoing domestic and international payments in the first 15 days of operation, with a 99% straight-through processing rate. The migration to the Temenos platform for core banking and payments at NBI was completed in under 12 months thanks to Temenos’ pre-configured banking and payments capabilities and APIs which reduced the need for complex customizations, as well as close collaboration between Temenos, NBI, Capital Bank and delivery partner ITSS. This success was recently recognized in the IBS Intelligence Innovation Awards, with Capital Bank winning ‘Best Implementation of Core Banking Services'. The implementation at NBI follows several other successful transformation projects with Temenos for Capital Bank in the last few years, including the launch of NBI’s branch operations in Saudi Arabia in just 45 days, as well as the integration of Bank Audi and the former Jordanian operations of Société Générale, each of which was achieved in under four months. Collectively, these projects helped Capital Bank to increase operational efficiency by more than 50% within three years, bringing significant cost savings and an improved customer experience. With faster, more accurate processing and immediate service requests, the bank has maintained high customer retention rates and a reputation for service excellence. Izzidin Abusalameh, Chief Operations Officer, Capital Bank Group, commented: “This achievement marks a significant milestone in our digital transformation journey and positions us as a leading player in the banking industry. We have seamlessly transitioned the National Bank of Iraq to a cutting-edge core banking system which will not only enhance operational efficiency but also support providing our customers with a superior digital banking experience. Our continued partnership with Temenos has not only provided us with an advanced technological platform but has also facilitated a culture of flexibility and adaptability, enabling us to execute our ambitious growth plans.” Lee Allcorn, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to National Bank of Iraq and the Capital Bank team on this successful implementation that gives NBI business agility and the same modern technology platform and ability to deploy fast with pre-configured banking capabilities as the rest of the group. With Temenos, Capital Bank Group is future-ready, and we are proud to support them as they continue to innovate and leverage our platform to grow sustainably and enhance the banking experience for customers.”](https://fintech.global/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/rupixen-Q59HmzK38eQ-unsplash-2-218x150.jpg "Flutterwave teams up with Acquired.com to streamline outward remittances in EU and UK")
